Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T15:01:57.161Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dissident writings as political theory on civil society and democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2011

MARLIES GLASIUS
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of precisely how civil society and its relation to democracy were conceptualised by its East European and South American proponents in their pre-democratic contexts, through an examination of declarations, newspaper articles, samizdat essays, diaries, letters from prison, academic articles and prize acceptance speeches written at the time. The analysis of these source materials is organised under three main themes: the first concerns activists' understanding of the nature of the regime, its aims and its relation to society; the second relates to the features of the emergent civil society the writers of these documents desired, observed, and helped to create; and the final section discusses their strategies and aspirations in relation to ‘democratisation’. On the basis of an analysis of commonalities in ideas across these two very different regional and ideological contexts, hypotheses are formulated as building blocks for a political theory of civil society under authoritarian rule, which may apply in yet other, contemporary contexts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 343 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 I will refer to the sources from these regions as ‘East European’ and ‘South American’ respectively, even though both of these regions obviously encompass more countries than the six under consideration here.

2 See for instance Dahrendorf, Ralf Gustav, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: in a letter intended to have been sent to a gentleman in Warsaw (London: Chatto & Windus, 1990)Google Scholar ; Ekiert, Grzegorz, The State Against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Kubik, Jan, The Power of Symbols against the Symbols of Power: The Rise of Solidarity and the Fall of State Socialism in Poland (University Park: Penn State University Press, 1994)Google Scholar ; O'Donnell, Guillermo A., Schmitter, Philippe C. and Whitehead, Laurence (eds), Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Comparative perspectives (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986)Google Scholar ; Przeworski, Adam, Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Stepan, Alfred (ed.), Democratizing Brazil: Problems of Transition and Consolidation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989)Google Scholar .

3 Havel, Václav, ‘The Power of the Powerless’, in Havel, Václav et al. , The Power of the Powerless: Citizens against the State in Central-Eastern Europe (Hutchinson: London 1985; essay first published in samizdat 1979), p. 24Google Scholar .

4 Cardoso, Fernando Henrique, ‘On the Characterization of Authoritarian Regimes in Latin America’, in Collier, David (ed.), The New Authoritarianism in Latin America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), p. 32Google Scholar .

5 Ibid., p. 35.

6 Ibid., p. 48.

7 Ibid., p. 51.

8 Konrad, George, Antipolitics (London: Quartet Books, 1984), p. 94Google Scholar .

9 Timerman, Jacobo, Prisoner Without a Name; Cell Without a Number (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981), p. 94Google Scholar .

10 Ibid., pp. 93–9.

11 Michnik, Adam, ‘A New Evolutionism’, in Michnik, Adam, Letters from Prison and Other Essays (Berkeley: University of California Press 1985, essay first published in samizdat 1979), p. xixGoogle Scholar .

12 Dorfman, Ariel, ‘Epilogue: October 1989’, in Meiselas, Susan (ed.), Chile from Within (New York: W. W. Norton Company, 1990), p. 121Google Scholar .

13 Brandys, Kazimierz, A Warsaw Diary 1978–1981 (London: Chatto & Windus, 1983), p. 118Google Scholar .

14 Havel, , Power of the Powerless, p. 34Google Scholar .

15 Brandys, , Warsaw Diary, p. 94Google Scholar .

16 Benda, Václav, in Benda, Václav et al. (eds), ‘Parallel Polis, or an Independent Society in Central and Eastern Europe: An Inquiry’, Social Research, 55:1–2 (1988), p. 218Google Scholar .

17 Konrad, , Antipolitics, p. 112Google Scholar .

18 Havel, , Power of the Powerless, p. 67Google Scholar .

19 Dorfman, , ‘A Rural Chilean Legend Comes True’, New York Times (18 February 1985)Google Scholar , reproduced in Chile from Within, p. 105.

20 Havel, , Power of the Powerless, pp. 38–39Google Scholar .

21 Timerman, , Prisoner, pp. 5–6Google Scholar .

22 Weffort, Francisco, ‘Why Democracy?’, in Stepan, Alfred (ed.), Democratizing Brazil: Problems of Transition and Consolidation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989; essay written in 1983), p. 347Google Scholar .

23 Konrad, , Antipolitics, p. 203Google Scholar .

24 Ibid., p. 195.

25 Brandys, , Warsaw Diary, p. 43Google Scholar ; see also, Bates, J. M., ‘The “Second Circulation 1976–1989 Poland”’, in Jones, Derek (ed.), Censorship: A World Encyclopedia (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000)Google Scholar .

26 Diago, Alejandro, Hebe Bonafini. Memoria y esperanza (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Dialectica, 1988), p. 119Google Scholar .

27 Diago, , Bonafini, p. 122Google Scholar .

28 Gorini, Ulises, La Rebelión de las Madres. Historia de las Madres de Plaza de Mayo. Tomo I (1976 – 1983) (Buenos Aires [etc.]: Norma, 2006), pp. 186–187Google Scholar .

29 Diago, , Bonafini, p. 123Google Scholar ; Línea Fundadora, Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Memoria, Verdad y Justicia, a los 30 años X los treinta mil: Voces de la Memoria (Buenos Aires: Baobab, 2006), pp. 31–32Google Scholar .

30 Havel, , Power of the Powerless, p. 40Google Scholar ; see also Brandys, , Warsaw Diary, p. 56Google Scholar .

31 Timerman, , Prisoner, p. 28Google Scholar .

32 Dorfman, , ‘Reports from the Heart of the NO’, Village Voice (4 October 1988)Google Scholar , reproduced in Chile from Within, p. 116.

33 Charter 77 Declaration (1 January 1977), available at: {http://libpro.cts.cuni.cz/charta/docs/declaration_of_charter_77.pdf} last accessed on 11 June 2010.

34 Benda et al., ‘Parallel Polis’, pp. 211–46.

35 Konrad, , Antipolitics, p. 182Google Scholar .

36 Ibid., p. 198.

37 Staniszkis, Jadwiga, Poland's Self-Limiting Revolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 50Google Scholar .

38 Dorfman, , ‘Exile's Return’, Village Voice (6 October 1987)Google Scholar , reproduced in Chile from Within, p. 113; Garreton, Manuel Antonio, ‘Popular Mobilization and the Military Regime in Chile: The Complexities of the Invisible Transition’, in Eckstein, Susan (ed.), Power and Popular Protext: Latin American Social Movements (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), pp. 269, 275Google Scholar .

39 Timerman, , Prisoner, p. 17Google Scholar .

40 Ibid., p. 21.

41 Weffort, ‘Why Democracy?’, p. 341.

42 Ibid., p. 340.

43 Ibid., p. 345.

44 Madres de Plaza de Mayo, ‘Declaración de Principios’ (22 August 1979), available at: {http://www.madresfundadoras.org.ar/pagina/declaracindeprincipiosao1979/24} last accessed on 11 June 2010.

45 Konrad, , Antipolitics, p. 92Google Scholar .

46 Ibid., p. 96.

47 Havel, , Power of the Powerless, p. 71Google Scholar ; see also Milan Simecka in ‘Parallel Polis’, p. 225.

48 Dorfman, , ‘In Chile, A Show of Hands’, New York Times (23 November 1985), reproduced in Chile from Within, pp. 108–109Google Scholar .

49 Dorfman, , ‘A Hopeful Parable of Doom’, Philadelphia Inquirer (13 March 1983)Google Scholar , reproduced in Dorfman, Ariel, Other Septembers, Many Americas; Selected Provocations 1980–2004 (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004) pp. 146–150Google Scholar .

50 See for instance Chandhoke, Neera, ‘The Limits of Global Civil Society’, in Glasius, Marlies, Kaldor, Mary and Anheier, Helmut (eds), Global Civil Society 2002 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 36–37Google Scholar ; Keane, John, ‘Eleven Theses on Markets and Civil Society’, Journal of Civil Society, 1:1 (2005), p. 26CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

51 Benda, ‘Parallel Polis’, p. 217.

52 Simecka, ‘Parallel Polis’, p. 222.

53 Dienstbier, ‘Parallel Polis’, p. 230.

54 Havel, 1979/1985, p. 237.

55 de la Parra, Manuel Antonio, ‘Fragments of a Self-Portrait’, in Chile from Within, pp. 14–15Google Scholar .

56 Madres, Declaracion and Janos Vargha, ‘Acceptance speech’, Right Livelihood Awards (9 December 1985), available at: {http://www.rightlivelihood.org/vargha_speech.html} last accessed on 11 June 2010.

57 Charter 77.

58 Madres, Declaracion, translation author's own.

59 Charter 77.

60 Cerny, Václav in Havel, , Power of the Powerless, p. 133Google Scholar .

61 Staniszkis, , Self-limiting Revolution, pp. 17, 23Google Scholar .

62 Charter 77.

63 Madres Declaracion.

64 Havel is referring of course to the brief, brutal and erratic rule of Idi Amin. Interestingly, the ‘non-party democracy’ of Yoweri Museveni that has been in power in Uganda since 1986 is much closer to the bureaucratic rule described in this article, and does show the ostensible regard for law described by Havel.

65 Havel, , Power of the Powerless, pp. 75, 73Google Scholar .

66 Dorfman, ‘Exile's Return’, p. 114.

67 Havel, , Power of the Powerless, p. 76Google Scholar .

68 Weffort, , Why Democracy?, p. 342Google Scholar .

69 Ibid., p. 343.

70 Timerman, , Prisoner, p. 21Google Scholar .

71 See for instance Konrad, , Antipolitics, pp. 116–124Google Scholar ; also Havel, , Power of the Powerless, p. 89Google Scholar .

72 Brandys, , Warsaw Diary, p. 83Google Scholar .

73 Serra, Jose, ‘Three Mistaken Theses Regarding the Connection between Industrialization and Authoritarian Regimes’, in Collier, David (ed.), The New Authoritarianism in Latin America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), pp. 99–163Google Scholar ; Cardoso, ‘On the Characterization’; Cardoso, Fernando Henrique, ‘Associated-Dependent Development and Democratic Theory’, in Stepan, Alfred (ed.), Democratizing Brazil: problems of transition and consolidation (New York: Oxford University Press 1989, essay written in 1983), pp. 299–326Google Scholar .

74 Vargha, ‘Acceptance speech’.

75 Timerman, Prisoner.

76 See for instance Dorfman, , ‘A Hopeful Parable’; Dorfman, ‘Martin Luther King: A Latin American Perspective’, Irish Times (20 August 2003)Google Scholar , reproduced in Dorfman, , Other Septembers, pp. 101–106Google Scholar .

77 Konrad, , Antipolitics, p. 212Google Scholar .

78 Ibid., p. 164.

79 Dorfman, , ‘Pinochet Has Reaped What He Has Sown’, New York Times (8 September 1986)Google Scholar , reproduced in Meiselas, , Chile from Within (New York), p. 111Google Scholar .

80 Brandys, , Warsaw Diary, p. 256Google Scholar .

81 Michnik, ‘New Evolutionism’, pp. 136–8, see also Cardoso, below, on the statist vision of democracy.

82 Konrad, , Antipolitics, p. 198Google Scholar .

83 Havel, , Power of the Powerless, p. 82Google Scholar .

84 Benda, ‘Parallel Polis’, p. 219.

85 Garreton, ‘Popular Mobilization’.

86 Judit Vasxheiyi, ‘Acceptance speech’, Right Livelihood Awards (9 December 1985), available at: {http://www.rightlivelihood.org/vargha_speech.html}, last accessed on 14 June 2010.

87 It barely features for instance in Lijphart, Arend, Democracy in Plural Societies: a Comparative Exploration (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977)Google Scholar or Dahl, Robert, Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy: Autonomy vs. Control (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982)Google Scholar .

88 Weffort, , Why Democracy?, p. 349Google Scholar .

89 Konrad, , Antipolitics, p. 198Google Scholar .

90 Weffort, , Why Democracy?, p. 329Google Scholar .

91 Havel, , Power of the Powerless, p. 52Google Scholar .

92 Konrad, , Antipolitics, p. 34Google Scholar .

93 Garreton, ‘Popular Mobilization’, pp. 271–2.

94 Cardoso, ‘Associated-Dependent Development’, p. 314.

95 Konrad, , Antipolitics, p. 137Google Scholar .

96 Chuchryk, Patricia, ‘Feminist Anti-Authoritarian Politics: The Role of Women's Organizations and the Chilean Transition to Democracy’, in Jaquette, Jane (ed.), The Women's Movement in Latin America: Feminism and the Transition to Democracy (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989), p. 182Google Scholar .

97 Havel, , Power of the Powerless, p. 93Google Scholar .

98 Ibid., p. 95.

99 Cardoso, ‘Associated-Dependent Development’, pp. 311–4.

100 Ibid., p. 324.

101 Dienstbier, ‘Parallel Polis’, p. 230.

102 Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York: Harcourt, 1951/1973), pp. 389–392Google Scholar .

103 Although it must be pointed out that levels of development were and are highly uneven in Brazil, and Czechoslovakians were also split into two national identities, with Czechs clearly dominating the sources used in this article.

104 Gramsci, Antonio, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, trans. and ed. Hoare, Quintin and Smith, Geoffrey Nowell (London: Lawrence and Wishart 1971), p. 238Google Scholar .